Avernum for D&D 5e

One of the first CRPGs I was exposed to was Spiderweb Software’s Exile. Looking back, the graphics were abominable, the gameplay was a bit wonky, but I loved it. There were four chapters in the Exile saga, which allowed you to create a party of adventurers banished into the great underground caverns beneath the empire. There, a society has grown of those exiles, and you explore a vast underground network of caves in a very open-world format. By Exile 3, you’re venturing back out into the Empire to seek freedom from your captors.

Spiderweb eventually recreated their game with brand new graphics and a more involved storyline, called Avernum. All three games in the Avernum series are available over at Steam.

The general idea is that the Empire discovered an underground cave system beneath the surface world, and so have set it up as a way to banish criminals, misfits and deviants; anyone who doesn’t fit into the Empire’s idea of ideal. Shoved through a teleportation gate, the Exiles are banished to Avernum to build a new life.

You have been banished to the underworld, never to see the light of day again. The surface is ruled by the cruel Emperor Hawthorne, master of the Empire. All of the known lands are subject to his brutal command. Everyone who speaks out, misbehaves or doesn’t fit in is cast into the dark, volcanic pits of Avernum, far below the surface. There, you are expected to die, a victim of starvation, horrible monsters, or simple despair. But not all of the Avernites have surrendered. With magic and steel, they are forging a new nation deep underground. You can join them and fight for safety. Or freedom. Or, if you dare, revenge on the surface-worlders who tried to destroy you. Join your new countrymen, explore a huge game world, hunt for hundreds of magical artifacts, choose from hundreds of quests, and become the hero of the underworld!

So I was looking at Avernum once again, checking out the wiki while downloading Escape from the Pit, and I remembered how my brother and I, when I was around 15 or so, tried to reverse engineer the game system so we could play it as a tabletop RPG. We didn’t succeed, as far as I remember, mostly because at the time we hadn’t been exposed to any percentile game systems, so we couldn’t figure out how to make that work on the tabletop.

Well, now thanks to Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Out of the Abyss, it’s possible!

The three races playable in Exile and Avernum are Humans, Slithzerikai (a lizard race), and Nephilim (a cat race).

Humans: The humans are covered in the PHB. The human Empire is the civilization which has banished its misfits and deviants. As a result, humans are the most prominent race.

Slithzerikai (Slith): The Slith can either be played as Dragonborn from the PHB, or, to be more accurate to the Slith seen in the game, as Lizardmen from page 111 of Volo’s Guide to Monsters. The Slith originate in the caves beneath the world, Avernum, and now interact with the Exiles. The Slith favor a two-tined spear, which can simply be a spear in-game.

Nephilim: The Nephilim are a cat race, and so can be played as Tabaxi from Volo’s Guide on Page 113. They originate from the surface world, and so are banished along with humans into Avernum.

Other than that, there’s not much more to it! You can play pretty much any class, and there’s lots of opportunity to explore. Look over the wiki to see all the different areas to play in. Out of the Abyss is a great guide to help with Underdark-like adventures and rules. Also, I really love the 4e Underdark guide, as it provides some really great setting material for underground games.

I’d like to run a one-or-two-shot game of this sometime. If I do, I’ll keep you up to date on it!